 |
 |
|
Biography of Bartolomeo Cristofori
Name: Bartolomeo Cristofori
Birth Date: May 4, 1655
Death Date: January 27, 1731
Place of Birth: Padua, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Gender: Male
Occupations: instrument maker, musician
Bartolomeo Cristofori
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), a harpsichord maker for a Florentine duke, built the world's first piano. He later made several technical alterations to improve the instrument's acoustics that have remained essential components of its construction.Almost nothing is known about the personal life of Bartolomeo di Francesco Cristofori, except that he was born in the northern Italian city of Padua on May 4, 1655. He became a harpsichord maker, and by 1688 his reputation brought him to the attention of Prince Ferdinando de Medici, son of the grand duke of Tuscany. The prince owned forty harpsichords and spinets, and hired Cristofori to both curate the collection and build new ones. The harpsichord, also called a clavecembalo or clavecin, dated back to the fourteenth century and took the form of strings stretched over a wooden sounding board. Notes emerged when a plectrum, or pick made from a bird's quill or leather, struck the string. Its main …showed first 150 words…
You are viewing only a small portion of the biography.
Please login or register to access the full copy.
|
|
…showed last 150 words…most certainly a German invention. Cristofori died in Florence on January 27, 1731. A few of his pianofortes exist: an instrument dating from 1720 is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, while another is in Leipzig and a third at the Museo degli Strumenti Musicali in Rome. A three-keyboard harpsichord thought to have been built by Cristofori, dated 1702 and with the coat of arms of Prince Ferdinando, resides at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Further Reading Brinsmead, Edgar, A History of the Pianoforte, with an Account of Ancient Music and Musical Instruments, Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1879. The Cambridge Companion to the Piano, edited by David Rowland, Cambridge University Press, 1998.Closson, Ernest, History of the Piano, translated by Delano Ames, Paul Elek, 1947.Hipkins, Alfred J., A Description and History of the Pianoforte, Detroit Reprints in Music, 1975.Loesser, Arthur, Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History, Simon and Schuster, 1954.
Need a custom written paper?
|
|
 |
|
